NEW ALBANY, Ind. — Following a record week for new COVID-19 cases across the Hoosier state, Floyd County has extended the county-wide mask mandate through the end of December.
"This is a long haul thing," Floyd County Public Health Officer Dr. Tom Harris said. "It's going to go for a while. It's kind of pointless to toy with people and say, 'Okay, well you only have to wear a mask through October 17 or November 17,' when realistically there's no real chance of the disease going away for sometime after that."
According to Harris, while Indiana is opening up more restrictions with the move into Phase 5 of reopening, adhering to guidelines to slow the spread is the most effective strategy. Harris said the health department has seen spikes in COVID-19 cases every time the state has moved to a new stage of reopening.
All individuals must wear a face covering while they are in public especially while inside.
The exceptions to the mandate are children under two, individuals in respiratory distress, individuals who are hearing impaired and need to remove facial coverings to communicate, among others.
“Floyd County has seen improvement in the overall index rates of illness," Tom Harris said. “The index has dropped for the last 2 weeks from 8.9 to 5.1. However, the Floyd County Health Department has noted spikes in rates after reopening phases in the past; we hope to mitigate this by continuing the Mask Mandate until at least December 31st.”
The index had peaked at 20.9 in mid-April and had dropped to 1.3 in late June. But cases continue to rise, with the county reporting 447 new cases and six new deaths in the last 30 days.
"It doesn't look like the vaccine is coming ineffective numbers any time soon, certainly not before 2021," Harris said.
Floyd Co. Health Department says nothing in the order reduces or eliminates the requirements imposed by the executive orders by Gov. Eric Holcomb or orders from other regulating governmental agencies. Holcomb has extended the statewide mandate only through November 14th as cases continue to rise throughout Indiana, but Harris said that will likely be extended as the date gets closer.
"We're also tracing to an extent like never before and we have the capacity to care so when that starts to become threatened, that capacity to care, then we'll look at additional measures," Holcomb said.
In Jefferson County, Mayor Greg Fischer has not called for an extension of the mask mandate through the end of the year and the health department said it is following the direction of Gov. Andy Beshear, though it does expect the mandate to be extended based on the data.
"Right now we don't have specific plans but as these numbers continue to escalate, that's what we're going to have to be looking at," Fischer said.
Harris said it is likely Floyd County will extend the mandate again if there is not an effective vaccine that is ready to be distributed and if cases do not decline by the end of the year.
"We all know that masks work," Harris said. "They work just as good now as they worked in 1918 with the pandemic then."